Wannaskan Almanac

  I love the fact that before the invention of matches in the mid 19th century, among pilgrims there was a practice called fire keeping. In the morning, they would collect hot coals, place the live embers into a metal container or fire pot, pack them with ash for safe keeping, and carry them to kindle their evening flame. The Franciscan, Richard Rohr, knew something of this when he wrote that we open most to our truest selves by letting loving people rub off on us.  Before I opened my eyes this morning, the smell of lavender wafted up from my pillow. My sister grows it for fun, keeps a tray of sachets handy, and sent me off with two of them the other day on my way out her door.  When my sister-in-law came over the other night for dinner, before I could say hello, I was taken by the bouquet of pink, frilly edged flowers she held up to her chin then gave me along with her smile. A few days later, she led me into her yummy smelling kitchen and lifted a teatowel from two warm...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 2 Number 34 Man Replaces Critical Night Light Joe McDonnell, 79 and residing in Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently replaced an outdoor overhead light. "Most people in my area let the electric company install a dusk to dawn light on a power pole in their yard," McDonnell tells the press. "But the owners can't turn the light off when they want to look at the stars or a comet or the northern lights, therefore we have a light on the front of the garage that we turn on and off as needed. There's a switch in the garage and also one in the house which is convenient. The light recently burned out so I brought my tallest ladder to the front of the garage, put a new bulb in my pocket, climbed up and made the replacement. A new bulb usually lasts four or five years." In a later communication McDonnell says he's glad he doesn't have to stand on the top step of his ladder. "I can reach the bulb while standing one step below the s...

Hello and welcome to a chilly Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is September 19th. Today, I'm packing my bags and heading over to Bayfield, Wisconsin for the week, making Chairman Joe's post yesterday, Madeline Island , perfect timing. Wisconsin also makes me think about my friend Jill Swenson, who grew up in the Twin Cities, but now calls Appleton home. This past summer, Jill published her memoir, The Land of Everlasting Sky: A Memoir of Loss and Legacy on Lake of the Woods.  The journey of this book started in the summer of 2014, when she returned to Warroad to visit her mother's childhood hometown. For folks in Wannaskaland, it's no surprise when I tell you that it was our beloved local librarian at the time, Barb Larson (aka "Babs" to her closest friends and in William Kent Krueger's Northwest Angle novel of the Cork O'Connor series), who connected Jill and me. "Kim, there's a lady in town you have to meet." And to Jill: ...

   Many years ago we pulled up to the ferry landing in Bayfield, Wisconsin and watched the ferry loaded with cars headed to Madeline Island two miles out in Lake Superior.  The three boys were little then. I think we had been driving back to Wannaska from a visit to my family in Boston. I resolved then we'd get back someday. After forty years, we finally did it last week. I found out after our trip to the island, that one of the boys beat us to it ten years ago.    Madeline Island is the largest of the Apostle Islands and the only one that has permanent residents. The island is fourteen miles long and three miles at its widest. Its irregular shape is replicated on post cards, carvings and pottery in the island gift shop. I even saw an island tattoo on a ferry passenger. The rest of the islands are part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. I thought the islands would be named Peter,  James and John, etc. instead of Oak, Bear and Devil. I thought Madeli...

   Boat Trip Up Mikinaak Creek  2020    “Looks like you found some quicksand there Ozaawaa,” I said to my nine-year old grandson, from the jonboat. “Neighbors always said there was quicksand down here.”    “What’s quicksand?” O asked, with both his rubber knee boots stuck in creek mud up to his ankles. “How do I get out of here?”    “Quicksand is a watery mix of sand and mud that’ll suck you down and drown you, the more you struggle,” I said, laying my paddle against a gunwale. “It’s sort of like the Chinese handcuffs that you get at the carnival. You know, the kind that you put your trigger finger and your pointer finger into, and when you try to get them out, the way they went in, it won’t let you go. That’s what you got there. Good thing you’re not alone. I’m here to help you should you get up to your chin . . . This is a good life lesson.”    “I can use my paddle,” O said confidently, leaning on it, this way and that, trying to ...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for September 16, 2026, the thirty-seventh Wednesday of the year, the thirteenth and last Wednesday of summer, the third Wednesday of September, and the two-hundred fifty-ninth day of the year, with one-hundred six days remaining. Brought to you by Bead Gypsy Studio and Scandinavian Shoppe , featuring $5 off Leather Bracelets for the month of September; 101 Main Avenue North, Roseau. Wannaska Phenology Update for September 16, 2026 Giant Puffball Calvatia gigantea , commonly known in English as the giant puffball, and as bikwaajish in Anishinaabe, can now be found in meadows, fields, and deciduous forests in around Wannaska. The classification of this species has been revised in recent decades. Puffballs, earthballs, earthstars, stinkhorns and several other kinds of fungi were once thought to be related and were known as the gasteromycetes or "stomach" fungi, because the fertile material develops inside spherical or pear-...

I am coming to grips with one of the biggest fallacies that I fell for in my younger years.  Way back...way, way back...I watched some documentaries that early in life set me on a path.  Those documentaries were called "Animal House" and "Real Genius".  They, and other documentaries, made me believe that college was going to be much diffetent than I found it to be. First of all, college girls are not attracted to intelligent nerds.  Well, maybe Mark Zuckerberg...but I am pretty sure money had something to do with that.  In my case, I was a broke intelligent nerd.  No money, lots of brains, and serviceable looks.   Second, nobody warned me that the “wild, chaotic, toga‑party‑every-night” version of college was apparently only available to people who had either rich parents, social skills, or a complete disregard for academic survival. I, unfortunately, had none of the above. My idea of a party was staying up until 7 a.m. working my third job and wo...

  THIRD MOVEMENT REMEMBERING   SONG SEVENTEEN BURNING GROUND   III   I keep moving retracing steps I decide the City will be next I intend to confront it – I will not wait             to find that old terrain and know its sound Back to the city – back to gray walls journeying outward, inward – burning ground   I continue with courage heading there and time being a relative thing dances and laughs in shifts and shimmers             as I open to hear the City’s old sound First, a river flowing inside a littered border that I hardly saw when I ran anxious  to join the gray-skulled order   Now there is time and I will proceed             and proceeding I will begin and beginning I will know the river’s voice that sings to me          ...